Jury Question?

JURY QUESTION?

When the New Jersey State Police officer was found not guilty in the death of two teenage girls who died in a crash when he ran a stop sign in pursuit of a speeder, the jury made their decision after reviewing the testimony of the officer.

They had asked the judge if they could review the testimony of the trooper when he described the moments leading up to the accident, but the judge made them review the trooper's entire testimony, which they did before exonerating him.

This reminded me of the moment during Jim Dwyer's trial, when the jury was beginning their deliberations, and asked the judge if they could review the testimony of when Dwyer met Veto Pantelone, the lead banker who made most of the defaulted loans.

Dwyer met Pantelone at a Philadelphia 76ers basketball game, and the next day visited Dwyer at his office on the boardwalk in Ocean City.

Dwyer was already a very successful real estate developer, owning the boardwalk office building motel, the historic Flanders hotel, which he developed into condos, Watsons and the Homestead hotels in Ocean City, the White Sands hotel in Bermuda and he was looking to buy another hotel in Bermuda, two skyscrapers in Philadelphia and the Prudential building in Linwood.

Dwyer didn't seek Pantelone out to borrow money, the bankers came to Dwyer, offering to lend him some. Pantelone had just started a new bank, Park Bank, and the loans he made to Dwyer would be some of his first loans.

Dwyer didn't even need Pantelone, but his chief financial officer, Mike McKeever, convinced him to keep and operate the Flander's banquet facilities and front desk, rather than sell them for others to operate. It would be a good cash flow and he would employee over a hundred people, with a top flight chef, a food and beverage manager and hotel manager at the Flanders.

Also in on the deal, Frank Mahr was Dwyer's main mortgage man. Mahr had introduced Dwyer to Mike McKeever, who they had met at an AA meeting. Dwyer had been good friends with McKeever's brother Billy, and they would do hundreds of deals togther.

During Dwyer's trial, the prosecution tried to present Dwyer, McKeever and Mahr as an "Irish Mafia" who ganged up on Pantelone, the rookie banker, but after McKeever died of a heart attack, and Mahr died of cancer, it was down to Jim Dwyer and Vito Pantelone as who would take the rap, and it wasn't going to be Pantelone. This was a year or two before bankers like Pantelone started getting a bad reputation, and it was Dwyer who was portrayed as the bank robber with a pen instead of a gun.

After he died Dwyer learned that McKeever's father was a big banker in Philadelphia who was friends and business partners with Angelo Bruno, the former head of the Philadelphia mafia. While Dwyer knew Mike McKeever had once been CFO of a Fortune 500 company (Revlon), he didn't know he had done time for embezzelment.

During his trial Dwyer the prosecutor showed Dwyer a document with his name written on it numerous time, but he said it wasn't his handwriting.

Dwyer believes this document was a probation officer's report on McKeever, that would prove that he was not only unaware of McKeever's prior criminal past, but that the government most certainly knew about it and didn't tell him.

When Frank Mahr died, the executor of the estate of the guy who introduced Dwyer to McKeever was none other than Vito Pantelone, the banker.

So it wasn't the "Irish Mafia" who ganged up on Pantelone, it was McKeever, Mahr and Pantelone who ganged up on Dwyer, robbing him of his $200 million real estate empire, his family, and his life as a free man.

In any case, when the jury adjured to consider Dwyer's fate, and determine if he intended to defraud Pantelone when he took out the loans, they asked the judge if they could review the testimony about the circumstances of how Dwyer met Pantelone, and the judge refused.

Instead of allowing the jury to review the testimony, he instructed them to base their judgement on what they remembered of the testimony that was given weeks earlier.

I believe that just as the jury decided in favor of the NJ State policeman after they reviewed his testimony, that Jim Dwyer would have been found innocent if the jury that decided his fate was permitted to review the details of how Dwyer met Pantelone.

It isn't a crime to default on a loan. It was a only a crime if Dwyer took out the loan with the intention of defrauding Pantelone, which he never did.

Why would a successful man who had built up $200 million in real estate assets intentionally commit a crime that would strip away his property, destroy his family and put him away in jail?

Jim Dwyer was targeted by McKeever as a Mark, and with the assistance of Mahr and Pantelone, Dwyer was victimized, and then made out to be the bad guy.

And if the jury had been given the opportunity to know what really happened, Jim Dwyer would never have gone to jail.